"THAT'S HOW wealth is being transferred upward."

How do you cut taxes for people who don't pay them to start with?

"Big Beautiful Bill transfers a trillion dollars upwards to the wealthy."

How, by not transferring it downwards?

The top 1% of income earners paid 46% of the total federal income tax burden, with an average rate of 26%.

The bottom 50% covered 2.3 % of the total burden, with an average rate of 3.3%.

"Definitely feel bad for the unpaid tower controllers and overworked airport/flight staff."

I don't know how much these people make, but I have to imagine that soon they won't even be able to afford the gas required to get them to work. Not to mention pay for childcare and other peripheral costs.

"And this is going into the Thanksgiving holiday travel season..."

And the chaos it will cause will be what will drive politicians to re-open the government.

And this is Thanksgiving. Christmas is just right around the corner.

What I think is truly telling is the state-level changes in VA. State republicans lost seven seats to Democrats. Those were seven seats that had been in Republican hands forever. To me, that's a far more important indicator than the outcome of a governor's race.

"WWII expansion did more than either the monetary standard change or the New Deal to make the economy great, er, good enough; to increase the size of the Middle Class."

That's true, although it was more the post-war years than anything else. After WWII, if you wanted a truck, or cargo ship, or airplane...it was going to be manufactured in the US. And that required lots of labor. Companies didn't care about the costs, as they would simply pass them on to consumers. There was no competition. That began to change as the Asian and European economies rebuilt. Up until the 1970s, have a college degree earned you around a 5% premium compared to someone without a degree.

Anyways, this whole "heist" argument is ridiculous. Median US household income in the US is $83,740 (2024). That's 4th highest in the world. And median household income is dead center of middle-class. And median household income has increased by almost $20k per year since 1990 in inflation-adjusted dollars.

If you want an education on economics, you'll need to look to someone other than Thom Hartmann.

"The simple fact is that back in the 1960s you could rent a small apartment, buy a used car, and put yourself through college on a minimum wage job. I know because I did it (pumping gas, washing dishes, working as a part-time DJ), as did millions of my generation. Just ask your grandparents. So, what happened?".

The government got involved. Federally secured loans mean that students and homeowners could borrow hundreds of thousands of dollars, even when they might be able to pay those loans. The lenders don't care because they are protected. My daughter's school, University of Arizona, costs around $60k per year. It's probably a good investment if you're going into a field where you're going to make a lot of money. If not, it's a waste of money.

But yeah, that's what happened.

"And, fwiw, from what I've seen on the local TV, Mr Cuomo got 60-70% of the Jewish vote."

It appears that lots of voter liked Mamdani the person, but less so his policies. A left-wing Trump, if you will.

"Boaz doecbt understand when a woman gets Botox or a ---- job, that's gender affirming care."

None of that is covered by the military healthcare system. Are you suggesting that the military should start covering plastic surgery for military personnel?

#2

I can't see the runway remaining boards, but the jet looks like it went another 3-4k feet after the big puff that presumably was the point the engine failed catastrophically.

Anyways, we can only guess here.

"I wonder what the instruments were saying, perhaps ignored?"

Once you reach decision speed, you take the jet airborne and solve the problem there. I checked out the airport diagram for this airport, and they were on a 12k' foot runway. Their TOLD should have indicated that the decision speed was probably after the rotation speed. That would also be weird, because at least in the jet I flew, there was an acceleration check prior to decision speed to ensure that you were achieving the correct amount of thrust. Maybe the pilots were just slow in recognizing the problem.

I'm a long-time devotee oof the Garmin Fenix series of watches, which do a pretty good job of tracking sleep patterns. It's far more common than not for me to wake up at 3am and be very awake. By 5am I tend to drift back off to sleep. My watch tells me I get my best sleep between 5am and 7am.

I used to get up and go to the gym around 4am, but now I prefer the sleep.

"Couple of million of them showed some recognition for others than themselves."

Or they showed they care only about themselves.

Those voters don't need Mamdani to redistribute their earnings. They could do that themselves. They need Mamdani to redistribute other people's money.

"So why don't you be a good boy and appreciate it."

Hmm. It sounds like you're advocating increasing taxes on yourself. I personally don't see how you could possibly be smart enough to be in a high tax bracket, but if it's true, then I will gladly thank you for paying taxes so others do not have to. The bottom 50% of taxpayers should be thanking you as well.

So...Klownshack is a ------- idiot. We all know that. But aside from that, I am genuinely interested in seeing how this thing plays out. Like I said, I think Hochul will be Mamdani's greatest obstacle, and that's unfortunate. This is an opportunity to conduct a unique experiment to see how humans react to changing economic environments in real time. We've seen it in places like Argentina, Venezuela, and Chile, but never in the US. I think Mamdani's policies will have a negative overall economic impact on NYC, but he was elected by the voters, and he should be given the opportunity to give them what they want.

"Not the wealthy! They're our betters!"

I do know they are paying your fair share of the taxes while you're out throwing bottle rockets at ICE facilities.

"Raise taxes on the wealthy."

So...you don't want the European model.

You want the outcome of the European model, but you want someone else to pick up the tab.

Got it.

People like you are why I half-jokingly state that the US is the last Marxist country. I don't see those sort of "to each according to need, to each according to ability" sentiments on this side of the Atlantic. They seemed to have figured it out. I don't think you ever will.

"But, when you have a candidate saying they want to use tax dollars to help everybody live a better life, much in the same way it happens in Europe or Canada or Australia, then there's no end to the handwringing by conservatives."

If you want to be more like Europe, here is what you do:

1. Raise taxes on lower income earners. Low-income earners in the US pay almost nothing in federal income tax. In Sweden, a low-income earner would pay three times as much as someone earning the same in the US.

2. Implement a VAT.

I'm down. Are you?

"I don't believe there will be an exodus from NYC."

I don't either. Kathy Hochul will not let it happen. And even if she did, I think most people would just try and outlast Mamdani.

If he really wanted to make these changes, he should have run for governor.

"Here's another one that won't be... Since the die hards here feel rent control is a good idea, Please explain what other policies will accompany it to keep the current infrastructure from going into disrepair as well as not allowing units not under a freeze to keep from skyrocketing? Basically the outcome if just this action is taken is that a current lucky few will get locked in and everyone else eventually priced out. What other policies will be enacted to keep this from happening?"

And don't forget, when a landlord is forced to accept sub-market value rents, that also shuts out someone who was willing to pay market value. I read an article the other day that developers in NYC are limiting the size of the housing facilities they are building to avoid having to comply with the city's mixed income requirements.

A better option would be for the city to pick up the full tab for the market value of the rent, but that would likely cause problems of its own.

#54

To me, the most crazy ---- Mamdani wants to do is with the schools. Going after charter schools and gifted and talented programs because they foster "inequity."

"FishPawn is upset a political candidate is fighting for the working class."

Sure.

The problem is that in order to do that, he is hyper-reliant on the productive classes to not alter their economic behavior and at least maintain current levels of earned income within NYC. He needs the taxes that comes off those earners to fund his project. So he has two big problems. First, the state government has a say in much of what Mamdani was proposing, and it's very possible that the state does not approve. Second, even if the state does approve, high income New Yorkers must be willing to eat those additional costs. In addition, Mamdani is proposing a 60% increase in corporate taxes. Is that something that corporations, and their shareholders, would be willing to accept? With people, it's a bit different. Many New Yorkers regard the city as the center of the universe, and may choose to stay for that reason alone. Businesses will likely be more pragmatic.

It's going to be an interesting experiment. Let's see where it goes.

I hope the first thing he does is get rid of those racist talented and gifted programs in NY public schools. Those kids deserve justiz.

"Deporting people for writing bad checks is the same thing as deporting violent criminals, to a Republican."

You don't need to commit a crime to be deported. Not being in the country with valid entry credentials is what gets you deported. You could be a saint, but if you're in the country illegally you need to be sent home.

"MADBOMBER apparently knows."

Actually, it's not that different over here. Germany has re-established border checkpoints, even with Schengen countries. AfD was the first German political party to jump on the anti-immigration bandwagon, but now all of them are.